A Black Friday Must? New Board Game Teaches Credit Card Restraint

Charge Large, which hit shelves this fall, is a game born of the credit-card boom. The object of the game is to be the first player with a black credit card, zero debt and $2.5 billion in cash. “The game is a reaction to easy credit,” Joe Davis, one of the game’s inventors, said. “There was a mystique of it, a sexiness to credit.”

Davis, 26, invented the game with high-school friend Adam Kornblum. The two Long Island, N.Y. residents say the idea came from seeing credit-card offers roll into their respective college campuses. Both skirted credit-card debt, unlike many of their peers, but were shocked by how easy it was to rack up a bill (something to keep in mind as Black Friday arrives). “We saw the power that plastic could have,” Davis said. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Monopoly was born in 1904 with the similar goal of financial enlightenment.

Shortly after their respective graduations, the two began drawing up ideas for a game that would teach players how to use credit wisely and have fun. Although Davis was a business major at Briarcliffe College, neither of them had experience designing board games, except for playing the occasional game of Monopoly as kids.

In Charge Large, players travel around the board, purchasing buildings and businesses with a combination of cash and credit. Up for grabs are fictional properties such as “Strong Arm Fitness Center” and “Large Ventures” — all displayed in bright fonts against a dark background. As the game goes on, players are upgraded from gold cards to platinum, platinum to black, based on how many “swipes” they make with their card. Their credit-card limits go up, yet by the end, they still have to have zero debt. The names were concocted by the two and weave in some personal details, like Merrick Mansion, an homage to Mr. Davis’s hamlet in Nassau County. Overall, the game evokes the nostalgia of big-budget bank advertising, shoulder pads and credit-card usage seemingly without consequence.

The two inventors hit some snags trying to get the game marketed.

Davis said they mailed copies of the game to different credit-card companies and famous billionaires. At one point, in 2007, Davis said he mailed Donald Trump a prototype and a case of Diet Coke in plastic bottles, which he heard was Trump’s favorite beverage. He never heard back. A spokesperson for Trump said that neither she nor any of her colleagues she asked “remember this gentleman or his proposal.”

They displayed Charge Large at Toy Fair last February and took a handful of pre-orders. In March, board-game juggernaut Hasbro Inc. heard about the game and the related viral campaign, Charlie Large. An agreement was signed with Hasbro in September to license the game. Although Charlie Large boasts a significant presence of Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, the campaign is kept as a separate entity from the Charge Large Hasbro game.

Charge Large is being played at schools, and has been well-received in sales and classrooms alike. But it’s too early to tell how many units have moved, overall. It’s available online through Hasbro.com, as well as at Wal-Mart stores. “Debt isn’t going to stop,” he said. “But we have to teach kids…The name of the game is ‘Charge Large,’ but I think the real name should be ‘Charge Large responsibly.’”